As temperatures soar around the St. Louis area, so do electricity bills. But Trent Davis, an energy efficiency expert with Texas-based HVAC systems manufacturer Lennox, says you don’t have to waste money or hurt the environment to stay cool this summer. Davis shares his top tips for using your heating and cooling systems responsibly.
1. Keep up with routine tasks
Close curtains to keep out radiant heat, clean the dryer’s lint trap, and remove leaves from around outside air-conditioning units. These simple tasks help keep a home’s systems working properly. “Leaves and other debris can impede air flow through the [AC] unit and cause it not to operate as efficiently or even malfunction,” Davis says. “You should also cut back bushes and foliage within 3 feet for better air flow.”
2. Change the air filter regularly
Davis recommends changing the air filter as directed, as well as visually inspecting it between changes. “People understand that changing filters is necessary to keep your system clean, but it also affects system efficiency,” he says. “The dirtier your filter gets, the harder the system has to work to cool the home.”
3. Install a programmable thermostat
“Historically, a lot of people didn’t know how to operate a programmable thermostat and were intimidated by them,” he says. “But a lot of the modern ones are intuitive and easy to use...and can even detect whether you’ve left the house or returned.”
4. Don’t make big temperature adjustments
Davis says one of the most common misconceptions is that you can cool down the house faster by turning the thermostat down lower. “But that’s not really how air conditioners work,” he says. “If you set the temperature you want, it will get there just as fast and you won’t forget to turn it up, while wasting power in the meantime.”
5. Turn down the water heater temperature
“The water heater is the second-largest energy consumer in most houses,” Davis says. “Turning that peak temperature down can save a lot of energy over the course of a year.”
6. Sign up for an annual service agreement
With an annual service agreement, an HVAC company will come out twice a year to make sure your heating and cooling systems are working properly. Davis says these packages are usually inexpensive and go a long way in identifying a potentially costly problem before the temperature rises.
